The facility integrates server, storage, networking and management resources, and will provide the infrastructure required for cloud computing services, application modernisation and data centre transformation. The data centre will also come equipped with a HP Carbon Emissions Management Service, an assessment service that helps organisations calculate energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions emanating from the use of IT.

Opening the centre, Communications Minister Stephen Conroy said infrastructure "such as this Next Generation Data Centre exemplifies the type of forward-looking investment activity that the NBN is encouraging in Australia. It is a tangible demonstration of how the government’s investment in the NBN is driving corporate investment in the Australian ICT sector.”

The multi-million dollar investment will be an employment stimulant, immediately creating “hundreds” of new local jobs in the construction and associated industries, the minister said

The centre is expected to be operational by the end of the year.

HP is the latest in a run of new data centre operators banking on the benefits of the NBN. A new data centre was launched by Tier 5 and Dell in Adelaide, South Australia in December which is attracting government and educational facility customers.

A fleet of data centres are poised to launch this year from freshly ASX listed company NextDC, a data hosting company founded by former Pipe Networks chief Bevan Slattery. The company is slated to launch a flagship data centre in Brisbane in March, Melbourne in November and another in Sydney at an as yet unspecified date. ®